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Most of us are concerned that a personal failure will be perceived as lack of competence, which can in turn damage self-esteem. One common way to ward off such threats to self-esteem is to have excuses ready to be rolled out. However, simply making excuses itself can be damaging, especially if used too often. Some people go one step further than making excuses, and that is to actually create obstacles to success so that, if failure occurs, they can protect their self by attributing the failure to something other than their own ability or competence (Jones & Berglas, 1978). This tactic, called self-handicapping, involves arranging events that may in fact reduce the likelihood of success but also serve to protect one’s self-esteem by deflecting responsibility (Gadbois & Sturgeon, 2011; Jones & Berglas, 1978; Park & Brown, 2014). For instance, partying the night before an exam gives a person an excuse for failing to perform well. Essentially one can say—both to oneself and others—that “I could have done better if I had stayed home and studied.”

Self-handicapping provides automatic cover for possible failure and the appearance of incompetence (Rhodewalt, 1990). Several years ago during a discussion of self-handicapping, one of my students (I’ll call her Julie) described how, as an outstanding clarinet player about to compete in the finals of a state competition, she decided not to practice the entire week before the event! Julie explained that she was worried that she would lose the competition and that she couldn’t cope with that failure. By not practicing, she would have a good way to explain her poor performance that wouldn’t challenge her competence. The key component of effective self-handicapping is that it essentially prevents attributions of incompetence by providing an external reason for the failure (Gadbois & Sturgeon, 2011).

There are many ways people self-handicap, including not studying, not preparing for competition or not practicing a task, using alcohol or drugs, or giving an opponent a head start in a race or some other advantage (Higgins & Harris, 1988; Rhodewalt, Saltzman, & Wittmer, 1984). There is an obvious downside to self-handicapping: Performance may in fact worsen and failure may become more likely. That is, by engaging in self-handicapping people may prevent the very success they hope for (McCrea & Hirt, 2001). Having an excuse for failure may protect self-esteem, but it is unlikely to boost it the way that success could.

In sum, an important aspect of the self is the interpersonal self—the one we present to others (Baumeister et al., 2007). Self-presentational concerns influence many of our social interactions: We strategically manage our impressions so that others will like us and think we are competent. We engage in a variety of tactics to do this, including self-monitoring, ingratiation, self-promotion, and self-handicapping. However, our impression management must be done in ways that are not too transparent, or they may backfire. In the next section we’ll elaborate on another important aspect of the self: how we control our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Self-Handicapping: Arranging events that may reduce one’s likelihood of success but also protect one’s self-esteem by serving as excuses for possible failure